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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Happy Holidays

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and are preparing for a festive New Year! In all of my preparations for Aunt Franceen´s visit I forgot to post a Merry Christmas message. Aunt Fran has already come and gone and it was probably the fastest time has gone since I got here. We did all kinds of fun stuff. Upon her arrival we stayed in Asuncion for a night as she acclimated to being once again in a developing country. Then we made the trip out to my site where she got to participate in my English class, the workout group for women and Book Club. We spent Christmas Eve day making butter cookies and then delivered them on Christmas Day. We went to mass at my local chapel and ate Christmas Eve dinner with my new host family. The families traditionally eat dinner at midnight after a toast and prayers around the nativity scene, but we ate around 11 before the toast. They toast with either fermented apple cider or clerico, which is fruit salad with wine in it.

Although I was very sad because this was my first Christmas away from home, I am glad that I was able to spend it in a place where I learned new customs and traditions. I am also super thankful that Aunt Fran was here because she pushed me to do stuff that I might not have if I were here alone, like go to Mass.

After Christmas we travelled to Iguazu Falls to visit one of the seven natural wonders of the world. They are beautiful and although its a long bus ride out there, it was definitely worth it! The week flew by and now I am relaxing a little bit. I plan to spend New Years Eve with some other volunteers out in the campo. Should be a fun time! Hope everyone gets to party and enjoys their holiday!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Summer Vacation

School is out... finally! And the end of the year brings with it lots of celebrations and graduations. This week I have been to several pools with the kids from the community centers and a few different lunches with teachers. It has been fun, but time to get to work! I have been working very hard to design some summer programs so that the kids don´t just stay home all day watching tv in the heat. The one that I am hoping has the most sucess is Book Club. The kids will come once a week for 2 hours to read, play and have fun! I recruited some of the teenagers to help me so that we can read in small groups. I am really hoping to have sucess. The kids seem really excited, its just the teenagers I have to keep motivated! I have also finally given in to the requests for English Classes. I will be teaching 4 classes a day 3 days a week... that will be exhausting, but I put it off for soooo long! So they will finally get what they´ve been asking for...

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I was able to spend the weekend in a beautiful Hotel near Encarnacion, a city that borders Argentina. There were several beautiful pools and great scenery. We went to visit the Jesuit ruins which were pretty cool and for those who eat meat, there was a great big turkey dinner prepared by some of the other volunteers. Although nothing beats dinner in Grandma´s basement with the fam, Thanksgiving in Paraguay came in a close second!

With Thanksgiving down and school over it is now time to start planning for Aunt Fran´s visit! Can´t wait til I get to show someone around the wonder that is Paraguay! It´ll definitely be interesting!